earthkit-meteo
A Python library for meteorological computations
What it is and what it does
earthkit-meteo is a meteorological computation library from ECMWF that wraps standard atmospheric physics calculations to work with multiple array backends. It lets you compute thermodynamic properties like potential temperature from temperature and pressure data, accepting NumPy arrays, Torch tensors, CuPy arrays, xarray objects, or fieldlist formats as input. The library is part of the broader earthkit ecosystem and is classified as Graduated and Production/Stable.
You use it when you need to perform standard meteorological calculations on weather or atmospheric data without writing the physics formulas yourself. It abstracts away the array-backend differences so the same code works whether your data lives in NumPy, on a GPU via Torch, or in other formats. The package has low install friction, depends only on deprecation, earthkit-utils, and numpy at runtime, and is actively maintained.
Use it for:
- Compute potential temperature from model or observational data for atmospheric analysis.
- Process weather datasets in multiple array formats without rewriting calculation logic.
- Integrate meteorological computations into data pipelines using NumPy or Torch tensors.
- Perform thermodynamic calculations as part of ECMWF earthkit-based workflows.
- Accelerate atmospheric physics on GPUs by passing CuPy or Torch arrays to the library.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Computes meteorological quantities (potential temperature, thermodynamic properties) from atmospheric data using NumPy, Torch, CuPy arrays, xarray, or fieldlist formats.
Yes, if you work with atmospheric or weather data and need standard meteorological calculations. The package is actively maintained, has low install friction, carries a permissive license, and supports modern Python versions. It is worth installing for meteorological workflows, especially if you already use NumPy or Torch and want to avoid reimplementing atmospheric physics.
Install
earthkit-meteo on PyPI
pip
pip install earthkit-meteouv
uv add earthkit-meteopoetry
poetry add earthkit-meteoInstalling earthkit-meteo
Before you install
Low install friction; pure Python wheel with three lightweight runtime dependencies (deprecation, earthkit-utils, numpy). Actively maintained with a recent release 9 days ago.
License in practice
Apache-2.0 permissive license allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; you must retain license notices and copyright attribution.
Quickstart
pip install earthkit-meteo
from earthkit.meteo import thermo
import numpy as np
t = np.array([264.12, 261.45]) # Kelvins
p = np.array([850, 850]) * 100.0 # Pascals
theta = thermo.potential_temperature(t, p)
Requires Python 3.10 or later.
Verify before relying
- Whether Torch and CuPy support is optional or requires separate installation.
- Full scope of meteorological functions beyond potential temperature.
- Performance characteristics when working with large datasets or GPU tensors.
Package facts
| License | Apache-2.0 (permissive) |
| Python support | supports the current Python release (>=3.10) |
| Install friction | low — pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 3 — deprecation, earthkit-utils, numpy |
| Maintenance | actively maintained — 9 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 76,528/month — #14,618 on PyPI (30-day window, as of 2026-08-14) |
| Known vulnerabilities | none known (OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14) |
Evidence: earthkit_meteo-1.1.0-py3-none-any.whl
Tags
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